


Mothers of Another Kind

by Suzelle



Category: Provost's Dog - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:57:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzelle/pseuds/Suzelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beka wanted Sabine to be godsmother to her first child, after all...Sabine teaches the first Eleni Cooper about horses, archery, and a few other things besides.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mothers of Another Kind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Boundbooks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boundbooks/gifts).



“Sabine, please, come _on!”_ Eleni pleaded, attempting to run ahead while tugging at the lady knight’s arm. “You promised it would be today!”

Sabine allowed herself to be pulled along by her eldest godschild, trying to suppress a laugh. Usually Eleni possessed a quiet patience unusual for her young age, but the promise of archery lessons had reduced her to a quivering mass of excitement all through the morning.

“So impatient!” she chuckled, “you would think I kept you and your brothers locked up in this castle bored and with nothing to do!”

“But this is _special_ ,” Eleni said, her eyes all seriousness, “we play with the horses every year. But you’ve promised me this _forever_ and now it’s finally today!”

Sabine smiled. The child had a point. The Cooper children had been coming to Macayhill for summer holidays for years now, and none of those years had gone by without Eleni begging Sabine to teach her some new skill or other, eagerly awaiting the year Sabine finally deemed her old enough for skills she wouldn’t have learned in Corus, such as archery. Now that Eleni had reached her seventh birthday (gods only knew how the time had passed), Sabine had finally decided to grant her request.

They made their way down to the archery range, Eleni cheerfully skipping ahead of Sabine. _She is much more like her father at times like this,_ Sabine reflected to herself. _I don’t think I can imagine Beka ever having skipped anywhere._

“The first thing we have to do is to pick a bow that’s the right size for you,” Sabine said, once they reached the range. “How about…this one?” She pulled out the tallest longbow she could find, causing Eleni to giggle. Unstrung, the bow was at least twice the height of her young student.

“No, I didn’t think so either,” Sabine said with a chuckle. “I think…this one is more like it.” She rummaged around before producing a shorter training bow. “I had a bow very much like this when I was a first-year page at the palace, if you can imagine I was ever that small.”

Eleni’s eyes widened at the thought. “That must have been _forever_ ago!”

Sabine gave her godsdaughter a mock-stern look. “I am not quite so ancient as your father would have you believe, young mistress. Ask him how many years ago it was he learned to be a mage!”

If anything, this left Eleni even more amused, giggling more at the thought that both her godsmother and her father had once been small as she was. Sabine grinned, and turned her attention back to the task at hand, fetching the bow and a quiver of arrows.

“Now, you’re a little younger than I was when I was a page, but I believe this will do. Do you know what the first thing to do is when getting ready to shoot a bow?”

“Make sure it’s strung,” Eleni said, “Otherwise it’s just a fancy-looking stick.”

“Precisely,” Sabine said with a grin. She demonstrated, before giving the bow to Eleni. “Now, stand so that you’re facing me, here. Make sure you keep your feet planted firmly, and turn so that you are facing the target, like this.” She turned and produced an arrow from the quiver.  “Do you remember the rules about arrows?”

Eleni nodded solemnly. “Always keep them pointed away from people, and don’t fire until you say so.”

“Exactly. Now, you knock an arrow like this. Are you ready?” Eleni nodded again. “Keep your bow arm straight, and pull the string back all the way…and…let it go!”

She let go, and the arrow went flying, missing the target by a good six inches.

“Not bad for a first try,” Sabine said encouragingly, “It was definitely closer to the target than my first attempt ever was! Let’s try again.”

Eleni shot again, this time coming slightly closer to the target.

“Keep your bow arm straight,” Sabine said, “Don’t let it drop down after you’ve fired.”

She tried twice more, before an arrow met the target with a resounding _thwack._

“I did it!” Eleni shrieked with joy, “I hit the target!”

Sabine grinned. “So you did! Now, let us see you hit it a second time.”

They continued to practice for a good half an hour, with Sabine giving Eleni suggestions to better her stance and aim. She had her mother’s eagerness to learn, and improved steadily as the time passed.

“I think that’s enough for now,” Sabine finally said, “You did very well, especially on your first try. Keep practicing, and you will be just as good as me or your mama.”

Eleni smiled, but remained silent for their walk back to the castle. They had almost reached the doors before Eleni stopped, her face lost in thought.

 “Sabine?” she asked, “Who is the Gentle Mother?”

Sabine stopped in surprise, wondering how she might best answer Eleni. Educating children on religious cults was not something she had anticipated for the day, and particularly not _that_ particular cult.

“You know her well, Eleni, but she is usually called by another name,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “The Gentle Mother is what some people prefer to call the Great Mother Goddess. They believe that the Goddess is very gentle at heart, and try to live by that example.”

“Oh.” Eleni said softly. She paused for a moment, before she replied, “That’s not what I thought the Goddess was like at all.”

“No, and it is not what I think either,” Sabine said, “But some people do, and they are entitled to believe what they wish.”

Eleni nodded, but her small face was still troubled. Sabine sighed and walked over to a nearby bench and sat, motioning for her godsdaughter to join her.

 “ Eleni, what’s brought all of this about? Have people been telling you things about the Gentle Mother?”

“No…not exactly,” Eleni said. “It’s just…well, I was playing with my friends, at home, before we came here. And I was showing them how we could play at being knights, or Dogs, and we were having fun, but…then one of their mamas came over. And she got angry.”

“What did she say to you, Eleni?” Sabine asked, though she dreaded knowing the answer.

 “She told her daughter that she couldn’t play with me anymore, and that my other friends shouldn’t either. She said that the Gentle Mother wants little girls to be serene, whatever that means, and peaceful, and that I was disrespecting good women. She said shame on my mama for teaching me to do what only men should do.”

Sabine clenched her teeth together, a knot of anger rising in her chest. “Did you tell your mother about this, Eleni?”

“No,” she replied, “I thought it would make her too angry. And I didn’t want to get Lysa’s mama in trouble, even though she made me upset.”

“You’re probably right,” Sabine conceded grudgingly, “but no one has the right to speak to you that way, Eleni, even if they are an adult. No one. Can you promise me you will tell your mother if anyone says those things to you again?”

 “Yes,” Eleni said, “but…Sabine…are they right? Are women supposed to be serene and gentle and not Hunt or learn things like archery? None…none of the other mothers do what you and Mama do. And some of my friends think it’s silly when I say I want to be a Dog like Mama. But I _do_. And…”

“No, my dear. What those women believe may be right for themselves, but it is _not_ right for every girl—certainly not for you, if you want to be like me and your mother,” Sabine sighed. “Did I ever tell you how it was I decided to be a knight?” Eleni shook her head.

“I wasn’t that much older than you, the way I remember it,” Sabine smiled at the memory. “My father insisted that I learn both what it would mean to be a lady of the castle and what it would mean to be lady knight. And so he and my mother each took me for a week—my father showed me as best he could what a knight of the realm would do, and my mother showed me how a lady governs Macayhill. And at the end of the two weeks…there was absolutely no question which choice was right for me. There wasn’t anything wrong with what my mother was doing. Indeed, I admired her for how she handled it all. But I knew right then that it would have driven me mad. I needed to be out in the world, and I needed to be _helping_ people, serving the realm, not just Macayhill. I couldn’t just sit confined to these walls the rest of my days. And you feel the same way, am I correct? You want to help people, like your mother does. And you should never let _anyone_ tell you to do otherwise, do you understand me?”

Eleni nodded.

“Good,” Sabine said, “your friends and their mothers are perfectly entitled to act and think how they will. But that doesn’t make you or your mother or I wrong. These followers of the Gentle Mother seem to think that all women should follow their example. But each young woman must choose for herself how she wants to live her life. And if you want to live your life by learning how to help people, then pay the rest of them no mind. Can you do that?”

“Yes,” Eleni said, “I understand, Sabine. But I still think it’s silly for them to call the Goddess the _Gentle_ Mother. Gods are too big and powerful to be gentle!”

Sabine laughed. “That they are, my dear. Now, run and find your brothers, and tell them we have time for one more visit down to the stables before the midday meal. The horses will be lonely without us for too long, don’t you think?”

Eleni grinned, and rushed ahead inside.

Sabine smiled. She had never given much thought to having children, she reflected to herself. But if she ever were to have a daughter, she thought she would want to have one very much like Beka’s. 

 

 


End file.
